"STRATFORD 279 



" Satanella." a black mare 16.2, Mr. Neave found at Banks', 

 having been returned as vicious by the Belgian Cavalry. 

 Never having been hunted, she promptly fell at the first and 

 many succeeding fences, but in three days she so thoroughly 

 mastered the business that she became as well known for her 

 prowess as an enormous jumper as she had been for her kicking 

 propensities. 



" Stratford " (Mr. Sheffield Neave's horse). This horse, 

 a chestnut gelding, standing 16.2, well up to 14 St., was one of 

 the five really good hunters Mr. Sheffield Neave confesses to 

 having owned in his life, and the only one of the five that had 

 good manners. He was purchased by Mr. Charles Page Wood 

 from Mr. Barthropp in 1885 ; he was not a horse for a 

 veterinary to fall in love with, as he was suffering from sub-acute 

 laminitis, which might easily have developed into acute, and 

 much time was spent by Mr. Neave in copering him up 

 between his runs. That he was worth all this attention the 

 sequel showed. A good-looking horse when on the move, he 

 was too long in the back to please the eye when standing ; but 

 what did this matter? He was a perfect mover, marvellous 

 fencer — bank, brook, or rail — very fast, and could last for ever. 

 Often has this character been conferred on horses, but nine 

 hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand would not have 

 stood the test that Stratford was put to on February 7th, 18S8, 

 when he was called upon to carry the Master in the best stag- 

 run he ever had in his life. It is described in Messrs. Ball and 

 Gilbey's book ; but if people will remember that the ground 

 was deep, and that the Master's horse was going all the time, 

 even at the only check, they will admit that he had had enough 

 of it at the end, which no one but the Master would have 

 seen, had the field not at a distance been able to keep their 

 eye on him, and so get home. The horse came up all right 

 next season, but on the opening day in the first two fields he 

 broke a blood vessel, and eventually had to be killed ; on 

 making a post inortein a large blood clot was found in the left 

 ventricle of his heart. Fourteen clays had he done in 1885-6, 

 nineteen in 1886-87, ^^'"^^^ eleven in 1887-88. 



A good many will agree with Mr. Neave that unless people 

 keep a diary they seldom realise how few times in a season a 

 horse comes out to do a really hard day. Mr. Neave tells me 

 that on an average about sixteen to eighteen times is as much 

 as he could get the best horse in the world to do, frost, thorns, 

 and strains all having to be contended against. 



" Leinster," the big bav gelding, standing 16.3, upon which 



